


Peace at last

by etribalfire



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:53:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21870364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etribalfire/pseuds/etribalfire
Summary: Ben lives.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 60





	1. After

**Author's Note:**

> How are y'all feeling after TROS? My favourite moment was redeemed-Ben-hotness and the way he said "dad" when he saw Han. Anyways..this is my take on what should have happened. Some smut in later chapters. Let's see where this will go, I hope you enjoy! English is not my first language so please don't judge..

She's nervous after kissing him, but when she sees him smile - truly smile - she finally allows relief to flood her veins. The bond pulsates around them and Ben pulls her close once more, hugging her to his chest. His heartbeat and his warmth are so comforting that she could fall asleep right there and then, and it takes everything to pull away again. She has never felt more exhausted and Ben must be feeling even worse, but he does not complain when she pulls him up to stand, only pressing his lips together from the pain.

It's a long way to their ships. They don't talk much, and Ben is so heavy that all her limbs scream from pain when they finally make it. But when she tries to pull him towards the X-Wing, he stops. Flashes of his past flood her mind as he suddenly recalls all the horrible things he has done, what the voices made him do. It's the first time he remembers his actions with an untouched mind, and the pain takes over everything. He sinks to his knees.

"I won't let them touch you", she says.

"I deserve a life sentence", he says, the shame almost choking him.

"Maybe. But I can't let that happen."

He doesn't answer, so she sinks to her knees as well, taking his hand.

"This comfort we feel, when we're together - do you honestly think I could let you rot in a cell while I walk freely? I would always feel guilty. I would always miss you."

Ben does not look convinced.

"Justice is the foundation of a peaceful world", he says. "No one should be above the law."

"I don't care." She looks angry now, very angry. "We defeated Palpatine, I think we can make an exception."

He strokes her hand with his thumb. "You don't want to lose your friends because of me. They will never forgive me. I know it, and you know it too."

They stare at each other, a silent battle, until she gives in and looks away. Her eyes land on his ship, still functional.

"Do you think you can fly on your own?"

Ben nods slowly, trying to read the plan that has formed in her mind. She hands him the sabers of his family.

"Wait for me there. I'll tell them you died protecting me, and then I'll meet you afterwards."

She helps him climb into his ship. He can't help but smile when she even straps him in, and his heartbeat picks up when she presses a kiss to his cheek. They take of together, and he closes his eyes to feel their bond once more, lets it flood through him before jumping to lightspeed.


	2. Short return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey returns to the resistance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An introvert myself, I always feel like Rey would be one to avoid parties and crowds. Also helps that someone is waiting for her..

The happiness on the resistance base is intoxicating. It feels like a thousand people want to hug her, congratulate her, without asking what actually happened on Exogol. She tries to soak it all up, but she has never felt comfortable with too much attention, and not even defeating Palpatine could have changed that. It takes longer than she likes for her to finally find Poe and Finn and the hug they share brings her to tears.

She still can't believe they've won, and the party at the base, the music and the food and drinks all feel like watching a dream. But underneath it all, a restlessness has taken place in her body. She knows she should sleep at least a day, can feel the exhaustion in her limbs with every step, but her mind buzzes with everything that has happened, and she longs for a quiet place with fewer people.

So, when she sits down with her closest friends around a fire she is relieved that they finally ask what happened. Palpatines defeat sounds unbelievable coming from her mouth, but her friends don't seem to care, believing every word on sight.  
Guilt takes over when she tells them that Ben Solo died saving her, but the anger that she can see in the eyes of the others calms it. Of course he was right, they would never forgive him, never see the difference between Ben and Kylo. She can't really blame them, but it's hard to accept that she will always be holding back things when she talks to them, even though she loves all of them dearly.

The disappoint in Finn's eyes is all too familiar when she tells him where she needs to go.

"Can't it wait?", he asks. "You should at least get some sleep before."

She tries not to read his mind, but his hope of them being more than friends washes over her, like it has several times before.

"I'm sorry", is all she manages to say. "I'll keep you updated on my location, but I have some things I need to do now."

"I hate that you're always running off alone."

"The destiny of a Jedi", she says jokingly, but Finn and Poe do not smile. She hugs them again, a bit awkwardly now, before she makes her way back to the X-wing. Music and light fade on the way to the ship, and she feels a pull that makes her run the last steps. Taking off, she takes one last look at the spectacle below her, taking in all the happiness and light, before she jumps to light speed once more.


	3. Sand and heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey follows Ben to Tatooine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys think the way the movie showed Rey on Tatooine was supposed to mean she'll live there? I did not feel this way one bit, but I saw a lot of people on tumblr beeing angry about this. Anyways, I personally think Rey would not want to live on a desert planet again as she seemed so happy about the rain on Ahch-Too and the vegetation on Takodana.

Tatooine feels achingly familiar. She knows where to go, just follows the pull that becomes stronger and stronger, until she lands next to the small, half-buried moisture farm. Ben is sitting before his ship, leaning his back against it. Bacta patches are lying around him, and he managed to make a cast for his leg. He looks just as tired as she does, but he smiles brightly when she walks over to him.

"Hey", he says.

"Hey."

She tears her eyes from him and walks over to the edge off the house, peering down at the simple farm. A desert planet, a desert home. But filled with a family, not with dolls and dried flowers.

"Have you been here before?", she asks, without looking back at him.

"No. Luke just told me about this place, how simple his life was before he met the droid."

She hears him getting up, and a moment later he is beside her. She can feel his pain through their bond, and makes a mental note to heal him later one, since she is just exhausted, not particularly wounded. He hands her the sabers, and she takes them carefully. Looking around, she finds a small rock where she kneels down in front of, Ben kneeling beside her. She places the sabers on the ground and a hand in the sand, looking at Ben. He follows her lead, and together they sink the sabers into the earth.  
Memories flood through her once more, Ben's and hers mixed together, all the love that Luke and Leia have given them, all the little moments that light up their souls now, even though they have long passed. Suddenly they are blinded by blue light, and the ghosts appear before them, their smiles lighting the night sky. She can her Ben silently cry and takes his hand while her own tears fall into the sand. She has never experienced such a mix of grief and love at the same time, and when Luke and Leia disappear, her mind is finally calm. Ben still cries and she gets up to get supplies from her ship, bringing blankets and food.

They make a fire inside the farm and lie down next to it, close together but not really touching. After a few moments, Ben hesitantly reaches out and places his hand on her stomach. His touch is warm and seems to burn through her clothes, and it is the last thing she needs to finally sink into a blissful, dreamless sleep.


	4. Where to?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben decide what to do now.

She wakes first the next morning. Dawn is creeping into the old farm, and the world around her is silent except for Ben's breathing. Careful not to disturb him, she sits up and looks at him. Just like her, he seems to have found a peaceful, dreamless sleep. He looks at least a decade younger. She places her hand on his leg and calls to the force to her, and it comes willingly, perhaps because she feels so well rested and at peace with herself.

Ben slowly wakes as she heals his leg and looks up at her.

"It wasn't a dream?", he asks.

She shakes her head.

He closes his eyes again and takes deep breath. "I don't think I have ever slept without having nightmares."

"Get used to it", she says, and he smiles lightly.

She can feel herself becoming nervous again, the ways she used to be around his old self. Trying to brush it off, she stands and searches her supplies for breakfast.

They eat it silently outside, facing the suns that are still low on the horizon.

"What not?", he asks, when they both lean back against his ship. She moves her head to look at him, his face and his side of the force bond both showing doubt.

Again, she must force herself to be bold when she says: "Now, we find ourselves a nice place to rest for a little while. And then we'll see."

"You don't want to go back?"

"No", she says. "Not for now, at least. I don't really now what I want to do now, but I am not a politician, so I doubt I would enjoy what the resistance has to do now."

"You could teach", he says. "There will always be force-sensitive creatures in the galaxy."

She tries to imagine it, Master Rey teaching a group of hopeful looking younglings. It feels wrong.

"Maybe someday", she says. "And I am not a real Jedi, am I?"

"You don't need someone to proclaim you Master to be a real Jedi."

"That's not what I meant. I've grown attached."

He is silent for a while after her comment, and she is too afraid to look at him.

"You don't need to teach the old way", he states. "Your way got you far in life, didn't it?"

"I don't want to teach. At least not yet."

He doesn't answer, so she asks: "Do you know a place where we can go? Green and peaceful?"

"Yes", he says. "But are you sure you-"

"Stop asking that."

He looks at her, trying to read her mind, so she opens the bond a bit more, to convince him that _yes_ , she wants them to be together, wherever they are going next.

"I know just the place", he says finally.


	5. Naboo

The house is just what Rey had in mind. Next to a beautiful lake, but far enough from the next village so that no one will stumble upon them and wonder why General Organa's holiday home is occupied. Ben leads her through the abandoned house and opens the bond so that she can see his last memory of this place, over 25 years ago, just peaceful days with him and his mother, not a care in the world. Grief and shame take hold of him once again, and Rey, feeling that she should leave him alone, makes her way to the next village to buy food. The village has everything she needs, and her eyes linger on the ships that the mechanic is fixing.

When she returns, Ben is nowhere to be found. She checks every room of the little house, until she sees a pile of clothes at the shore of the lake. When she arrives at the edge of the water, she can see him. For a non-swimmer, he looks dangerously far out, but when he feels her presence, he swims back to the shore with strong, controlled strokes, and she calms herself. She sits down on the pier and watches him, her feet dangling in the warm water. He picks up his shirt but doesn't put it on, and comes to sit next to her on the pier.

"Think this will do?", he asks, as he puts his bare feet into the water as well.

"It's perfect. I can't believe we're really here."

He gives her a shy smile. "Me neither."

He runs a finger along the worn wood of the pier, when he suddenly looks up. "I never thanked you. For believing I could be turned, even after all the unspeakable things that I have done."

"You don't need to", she says. "If I had been the one to be tormented by Snoke and Palpatine, you wouldn't have stopped hoping either, just like your mother did not stop."

He looks like he doubts her, but doesn't say anything.

"You can thank me with teaching me all that you know about the force", she says. "And I want to learn how to swim."

He nods slowly, places his shirt on the pier and glides back into the water. It's shallow enough that he can stand under the pier. She tries to hold his gaze, but her eyes automatically break away to his torso, now with fewer scars, and as muscular as the first time she saw him without a shirt. She wonders if he is aware of his looks, if he ever used them to seduce someone, if someone else was ever allowed to touch him.

"Let's start with the swimming", he says and cocks his head towards the water.

He watches as she starts to take out her buns, but when she opens her tunic, he quickly looks away. Luckily, her tunic comes of fast, and she hops into the water, now only in her underwear. No one has ever seen this much of her skin, but she does not feel embarrassed, even though she can feel his eyes on her body now. It excites her. She can't wait to kiss him again, even though she knows it will take some more time until they are ready to pursue _that_ aspect of their relationship, but that is okay. Their time together is not limited, after all.

As she suspected, he is an excellent teacher, and by the time the sun begins to set, she is confident enough to swim out into the areas where her feet cannot touch the ground anymore. They get out of the water and put on dry clothes, before they make a fire before the house to roast some of the meat that she bought. They don't speak much during their meal and gaze at the stars afterwards, just enjoying the comfort of being together in this peaceful place. When he gets up and offers his hand, she does not hesitate to take it, and together they curl up on the bed in the dark, cool bedroom. His hand finds her stomach once again, and she wishes it would go under her shirt, so that they can be skin to skin, like they are meant to be.

Again, she sleeps undisturbed and happy.


	6. Routines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally found time to write again. Watched all star wars films over the holidays and now I am madder than ever about tros.

The first days on Naboo pass by quickly. They explore the area around the house, climb one of the nearby mountains and swim every evening. They talk about everything and nothing, after all, they do not know each other very well. He talks about his parents, of all the planets and moons he has visited, of political systems, corruptions, history of the galaxy. She loves to listen to him, his quiet, deep voice so soothing to her mind. He is either a good storyteller, or she knows how to ask the right questions, either way, talking to him is - like everything else - perfectly balanced.

They try not to dwell on the past, but Rey can't help but be curious about the Palpatine family, even though their history is streaked with violence. Now that she knows that her parents loved her, she longs for them like she hasn't in a long time. But she knows nothing of them, and never will. She is unsure if she'll ever make her peace with it.

The food on Naboo is a luxury, always fresh and plentiful. He has never known hunger like she did, but Ben did spend the last ten years solely on ships, so his fascination with fresh food almost matches her own. Rey has enough credits to last them a couple of months, and neither of them is wasteful, but when if comes to the market in their village, they must restrain themselves. They carefully listen to the vendors who explain them how to cook their goods and how to combine them, and every meal in the evening is like a revelation, even though they both mess up from time to time.

He is a morning person, always gone before she wakes, roaming the nature nearby, but always back in time for breakfast. She finds time for herself as well, as he usually naps in the afternoon, when her mind is still too busy to calm down. After four or five days, he wakes up from his nap to find her at their ships, fixing something. He watches her for a while, amazed with her skills in repairing when all he knows is how to fly. They go for a swim afterwards, and she brings soap from the house to the lake, to wash away all the grease. Somehow, she managed to get some on the back of her neck, and he massages it away. Before he can stop himself, his fingers run along her back.

"Thanks", she mumbles and blushes.

She spends all evening explaining their ships to him, and it's hard for him to keep up, but she is a good teacher.

"Did you go to the ships today because you are growing restless?", he asks, after she has finished talking.

"Perhaps", she says, lost in thought. "I've never had so much time to do nothing. I don't think I'm very good at it. I couldn't even finish those texts on the datapad you gave me."

"I can feel myself becoming restless as well", he says.

"Do you want to leave?"

He looks out at the lake, at the stars, and back to her beside him. They always eat on a blanket outside, in front of the house so that they can see the lake.

"I don't want to leave", he says.

"Me neither."

"Maybe we can find some work at the village", he says. "You could help the mechanic. I saw how you looked at the speeders there, your fingers were twitching to fix them."

She laughs. "You'd have to come and get me to go back home. Otherwise I would sleep in that shop."

"I will", he says.

"What will you do?"

"I don't know", he says. He has never thought about what he would do if he had the choice. Nothing that would require him to sit in a shop all day, if he can help it.

"You could give swimming lessons", she teases.

"I doubt there's someone left on Naboo who doesn't know how to swim."

She smiles, before it gives way to concern.

"Just be careful."

The look in her eyes is all it takes for him to finally kiss her again. She meets his lips eagerly, and pulls him down with her. Her hands go into his hair, along his chin, over his shoulders, and he shudders. He runs his nose along her chin to kiss her neck, and she sighs. After a while, he lies down beside her and pulls her into his body, and buries his face in her hair.

That night, they fall asleep on their blanket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and comments would be much appreciated


End file.
